A research program to investigate relationships between central nervous system (CNS) transmitters and behavior was developed in order to learn more about the neurobiological mechanisms which underlie abnormal behavior. Neurotransmitters have major effects on the behavior of animals by their individual or grouped action in the CNS. This concept serves as a basis for our research strategy in developing new experiments in the field of neurochemical correlates of behavior. It is assumed that an important factor in the stable emission of a specific learned response is the change in concentrations of the neurotransmitters acting at the post-synaptic membrane of a group of important synapses involved in key neuronal pathways utilized for the performance of that particular behavior. It therefore becomes important to study how abnormal levels of such transmitter candidates can have major effects on behavior by quantitatively measuring both the transmitter levels in different structures of the brain and concomitant changes in the behavior of the organism. Our research will be directed toward the following five objectives: (1) correlate changes in serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, acetylcholine, etc., and/or their metabolites in morphologically defined subcellular components isolated from various brain areas, as well as content and turnover measurements in these areas, with the behavioral changes induced in the same animals by drug administration; (2) reexamine and extend our previous work, where neurochemical-behavioral changes were found after drug administration, to include the measurement of the amino acids in specific CNS areas and subcellular fractions isolated from these regions; (3) determine the effects of environmental conditions on behavior, neurotransmitter levels and turnover rate of these compounds in specific brain areas, and subcellular fractions isolated from these parts; (4) continue our studies of the metabolic and functional roles of glycine, glutamate and aspartate; and (5) continue working on methods for measuring the "free" or physiologically effective compartment of different neurotransmitters in brain.